Detection of antibodies to Borna disease virus in Turkish cats by using recombinant p40

Recombinant p40 produced by baculovirus was used in an ELISA to screen samp les of serum taken from 80 cats in Istanbul. The sera were also analysed fo r feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) and feline leukaemia virus (FeLV). An tibodies to Borna disease virus- (BDV) p40 were detected in 34 (42.5 per ce nt) of the 80 cats. Seventy-three per cent of the sera which were positive for FIV and 26 per cent of the sera which were negative for FIV had antibod ies to BDV. There was no difference in the percentage of sera which were po sitive for BDV between the cats that were positive or negative for Few. Thr ee of the cats had neurological disease and two of these had antibodies to BDV. Six sera with low, medium or high optical densities (ODS) by ELISA wer e analysed by Western blotting. only the sera with medium and high ODS reac ted specifically with p40 at a dilution of 1 in 1000.